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I would if I had a child who wanted a phone. I would perhaps even double down and get a landline to reinforce basic phone etiquette

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Once those flood gates are open, it's hard to go back. But, not impossible.

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So your tween wants a smartphone? Read this first

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When’s the right time to start your child with a phone? Is 12 too young? Here’s what a professional screen time consultant tells parents about the risks kids face online.

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It's more than a trend. It's the science of writing.

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More than a decade after it was phased out in most schools, elementary school students in California will begin learning cursive writing next year - thanks to a new law.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Let's take a moment now for a little writing challenge. Take out a pen and paper and write your name in cursive.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

I can do it. I know Steve can do it, too. If you're...

INSKEEP: (Laughter) I've signed a few books recently, yes. Go on (ph).

MARTÍNEZ: Yes, you did. I know. That's why I know you can do it.

Now, if you're struggling, maybe you're part of the generation that never learned cursive. It hasn't been required in most U.S. schools since 2010, but California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill recently mandating cursive handwriting instruction in elementary school.

INSKEEP: The idea came from assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, who's a former elementary school teacher.

SHARON QUIRK-SILVA: It really came from me actually using the app 23andMe and going back a good amount of decades to some family records and realizing that most of them were written in cursive.

MARTÍNEZ: Quirk-Silva says learning cursive is really helpful. It boosts reading and writing skills, and it can help kids connect with relatives.

QUIRK-SILVA: I have family members that have written many, many letters over the years. And as my kids were growing up, their grandmother was from Wisconsin, and she wrote them letters almost weekly, all in cursive.

INSKEEP: Teacher Pam Keller in Fullerton, Calif., says her adult children never learned cursive.

PAM KELLER: When cursive comes up in some kinds of old documents, family letters, they struggle to read it.

INSKEEP: So she started teaching cursive to her students.

KELLER: Some kids find it hard, but most of them get really excited because they think cursive is, like, something adults do. And they notice that if you don't know how to write in cursive, you can't have a signature. And they all want to have signatures.

MARTÍNEZ: Keller tries to make the lessons fun by using a book of jokes.

KELLER: They're actually writing jokes in cursive, so they're practicing it in something that's of high interest to all of them.

INSKEEP: California's new handwriting law takes effect in January because the governor knew how to sign it. And by January, Keller's students will not only know how to write letters to grandma. They'll have a few jokes to tell her, too.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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California mandates cursive handwriting instruction in elementary schools

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More than a decade after it was phased out in most schools, elementary school students in California will begin learning cursive writing next year - thanks to a new law.

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Avery Q. '25 Awarded Global Citizens Initiative Fellowship

We are proud to share the news that our own Avery Q. '25 has been accepted into the highly competitive global program run by Global Citizens Initiative (GCI). Avery will enter into a 10-month fellowship program that "aims to equip young global citizens with the mindset, skills, and resources necessary to become effective and ethical global leaders [GCI]." Avery will spend the first month of the Fellowship with students from around the world at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. In the months following, Avery will design and implement a service project that incorporates her interest in health care and emergency care services.

"Our Admissions Committee was impressed by the caliber of her application, great potential as a global leader and desire to enact positive change in her community," wrote Kathryn Taylor, Director, Programs & Strategic Partnerships at GCI, in Avery's acceptance letter.

Avery is thrilled to be part of the GCI network, and is good friends with Chloe Flynn '23, who earned the fellowship last year. "Chloe is the one who encouraged me to apply. I am beyond excited about the opportunity to participate in the Global Citizens Initiative," Avery tells us. "I have a passion for change. Ever since I was a kid-when I tried to encourage shop owners to cut plastic use-I've sought out opportunities to make positive change."

"At the conference, I will meet other people who want to create change in our world, and will meet my designated mentor. I hope to be educated and educate others as well," says Avery. "During the next nine months, with my mentor and the group to guide and inspire me, I hope to create a project in Marin County that addresses the need for immediate healthcare, such as rescuing people from emergency situations."

Avery says that she can't wait to start her involvement with GCI, and to bring her passion for emergency rescue into a service project in Marin County. She is already trained in first aid, CPR, and professional rescue training for water situations.

We wish Avery all the best on her new adventure as a global citizen!

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Avery Q. '25 Awarded Global Citizens Initiative Fellowship

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SD Sophomore will join a worldwide group of peers at Scotland's University of St. Andrews.

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Marin Rowing, U16 Men's 8, took first place at Nationals in Florida this June. Tyler Durgy (7th seat) is seen here with the trophy.

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Fifty years ago this year, the album Free to Be... You and Me was released. It was a personal project that would go on to become a gold record, a television special, a book, a foundation, and the anthem of a generation. The opening song, with its jangly banjo and skipping rhythm, lays out a vision of a kids utopia:

There's a land that I see
where the children are free.
And I say it ain't far
to this land from where we are.

But 1972, that wasn't the message kids were getting. Actor Marlo Thomas discovered that reading a bedtime story to her 5-year-old niece.

"I said to my sister, these books are so old fashioned," remembers Thomas. "The prince is gonna come along and kiss her and the whole world's gonna be OK? I mean, it took us years to get over that. And that's when I decided that I wanted to create a project for children that said that they were free to be anything they wanted to be."

What would you like to have heard as a kid?

Thomas had grown up in a show business family and was fresh off a successful run in the sitcom That Girl. She used her connections to realize this vision. She gathered celebrities like playwright Herb Gardner, actor Mel Brooks, poet Shel Silverstein, Academy Award-winning playwright Paddy Chayefsky and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ed Kleban. In late-night sessions at Thomas' apartment, they talked about what kind of songs and poems and stories they wanted to tell. And what kind of world they wanted to live in.

"I gathered these people around and I said to them, if you could have anything said to you in your childhood, what would you have wanted it to be?" Marlo Thomas remembers. "And Herb Gardner said, 'I would've liked to have been told that it was all right for a boy to cry.' And I said, I would've liked to have been told that at the end of every fairy tale, the girl, the princess, doesn't have to marry the prince and that she doesn't have to be a blonde all the time."

New messages for the 1970s

In 1972, these messages were revolutionary. When the Free to Be television special came out a few years later, Thomas had to fight the networks to show a scene of her and the Black singer and actor Harry Belafonte just pushing strollers together. Married women couldn't even get their own credit cards. But change was starting to happen.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin worked on Free to Be... You and Me. "For so long, people had not questioned gender roles," she says. "They just were the norm. And suddenly all around us were consciousness raising groups, and marches, and caucuses at workplaces."

Cottin Pogrebin is one of the founding editors of Ms. magazine, which began earlier that same year. She worked on the New York City's commission to eradicate sexism in the public schools, and wrote columns for Ms. about "Stories for Free Children" and "Songs for Free Children," trying to find the best available offerings for kids. She worked with Thomas to bring that lens to the album, which she thinks achieved its goal.

"It really reaches into the soul of the child and it says, I see you, I see who you are, and we're gonna support the best you that you can become," appreciates Cottin Pogrebin. "And you know, kids have the purest sense of justice of anybody. They just say, It's not fair that I can't do this. Why can't I do this?"

Criticism of gender in children's popular culture was an early project of second wave feminist activism, says Leslie Paris, professor of history at the University of British Columbia who researches American childhood in the 1960s and 1970s. And second wave feminists were eager to pass along to kids both a model of a new world, and the tools for creating it.

"This was an era of tremendous cultural ferment in children's culture," explains Paris. Both children's television and literature began to mention divorce, and make an effort to showcase racial and class diversity, as well as the diversity of possibilities for girls beyond traditional gender roles.

And Free to Be did that. Football star Rosey Grier, with his deep voice and defensive lineman bulk, told kids:

It's alright to cry
Crying gets the mad out of you
It's alright to cry
It might make you feel better

And the spoken-word fairy tale Atalanta ended with Marlo Thomas and Alan Alda telling not of a wedding, but of couple finding personal fulfillment:

"But now Atalanta is still off in the world, visiting towns and cities. And John is still sailing the seas. Perhaps someday they'll be married. And perhaps they will not. In any case, it is certain, they are both living happily ever after."

Top talent pays off

The songs, poems and stories on the album showed kids that parents are just people, that boys and girls could be friends, and that people could be anything they wanted to be. And, most importantly, they did it with an irresistible joy and rhythm. Marlo Thomas says this was no accident.

Thomas initially took the ideological framework and resulting lyrics to children's writers. But when she got the material back, she hated it. "I thought, wow. You know, my niece, at five years old, she's watching rock concerts in her living room on television. I cannot give her a sing-songy song."

Which is when she decided to go to Broadway talent, and composers like Stephen Lawrence.

"We have to get these kids up on their feet, singing and dancing, and be ahead of the curve" she said.

And they did. The melodies and poems are catchy, and delivered by top talent. The title song is sung by The New Seekers, famous for I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing. Diana Ross told kids they didn't have to change, Carol Channing pulled back the lens on advertising, and Alan Alda let parents know that they could give their boys a doll.

This host of celebrity talent offered something for parents, too - role models saying that pushing back on gender norms, and crying, and being yourself, were OK.

It also got the album into schools, libraries and homes across the country.

Growing up 'free to be'

Musician Kimya Dawson grew up with Free to Be. "I don't even remember the first time [hearing the album] because I, too, was born in November, 1972," laughs Dawson. "Me and my best friend Pier used to sit around, and we had the book, and we had the record and we loved William Wants a Doll."

For a tomboy growing up in the 70s, this provided affirmation. And as the culture shifted in the '80s, it was a source of support.

"Even as a teen, I was still listening to it. When my older brother was in Desert Storm, I sent him a copy of the book while he was deployed. And I knew the messages that were being sort of forced onto the young soldiers over there, and I just wanted to make sure that he held onto some of that kindness, and friendship, and feeling your feelings."

Kids today who feel alone in their family, or their town, can find community with just a TikTok search. But 50 years ago, this album was a lifeline. Marlo Thomas says she still hears that.

"So many people stop me on the street," says Thomas. "Gay men who say when that song came out, you saved my life. When I heard 'William Wants a Doll,' I thought, I'm gonna be OK."

When this album came out, its hope for a better world was palpable. And some like Ms. magazine co-founder Letty Cottin Pogregin, are dismayed about what still hasn't changed - or has backslid. "I wish someday it would be looked at as some weird antique representing another era," sighs Cottin Pogrebin.

Since 1972 there have been huge changes when it comes to gender and family in this country. Some of the album is dated. But so much of it still resonates - both because of what hasn't changed, and because of what will always be a question for people growing up, even in the most free of societies.

"Every generation needs this album or something like it because the issues are the same," says Marlo Thomas. "The world continues to question these things, and I think we have to be ready with the answers."

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Kids weren't always 'Free to Be... You and Me' - here's a look at its legacy, at 50

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The children's album - featuring stories and songs celebrating tolerance, individuality and gender neutrality - debuted in 1972. It would become a TV special, a book, a foundation - and an anthem.

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School Calendar - Montessori de Terra Linda

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School Calendar - Montessori de Terra Linda School

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Zarrín Atkins and Caitlin Sweeny collaborated with an outstanding group of Montessori educators to create this addendum to the Montessori Curriculum.

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Collectively Renewing Montessori_ An Invitation (6)

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Request an Excerpt The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. A New York Times Bestseller! DR. DAN SIEGEL order books here: Siegel emerges as a bighearted writer, fully convinced that we all possess the fundamental virtues to navigate the choppy waters of adolescence, and he is eager for us to set ...

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Black music, forged in captivity, became the sound of complete artistic freedom. It also became the sound of America. On today's episode: Wesley Morris, a critic-at-large for The New York Times.

"1619" is a New York Times audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones. You can find more information about it at nytimes.com/1619podcast.

This episode contains explicit language.

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‎1619: Episode 3: The Birth of American Music on Apple Podcasts

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Black music, forged in captivity, became the sound of complete artistic freedom. It also became the sound of America. On today's episode: Wesley Morris, a critic-at-large for The New York Times. "1619" is a New York Times audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones. You can find more information abo...

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Homo Naledi

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Watch Unknown: Cave of Bones | Netflix Official Site

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Scientists examine underground clues from over 250,000 years ago that raise questions about our early relatives - and what it truly means to be human. Watch trailers & learn more.

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This was the inaugural year of a summer program I was proud to be a part of and will continue supporting.

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There are thousands of overnight summer camps across the US... but that experience is unfortunately a very exclusive one, reserved for those with economic means. The mission behind CAMP MADE4ME is to change that - to level the playing field, providing unique opportunities to kids, families and communities who otherwise may not have them. This is a program defined by the feeling: "This camp was made for me!"

Fueled by volunteer staff from across the country, and piggybacking on the founder's previous success in creating two non-profit summer camps serving thousands of youth from Boston & New York City, CAMP MADE4ME will be a haven for rising 5th-9th graders from the Bay Area's most underfunded communities, providing the magic of camp and allowing kids to just be kids.

Kicking off its inaugural summer in June 2024, CAMP MADE4ME is a collaborative effort between STATE Bags, Marin City-based PlayMarin & East Oakland Youth Development Center. Hosted at Camp Loma Mar in the heart of the Pescadero Valley, this program will not only provide a life-changing camp experience, but year-round events for campers and volunteers alike.

*The images seen throughout this site are of the nonprofit programs the founders of CAMP MADE4ME previously created for youth from Boston & New York City.

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There are thousands of overnight summer camps across the US... but that experience is unfortunately a very exclusive one, reserved for those with economic means. The mission behind CAMP MADE4ME is to change that - to level the playing field, providing unique opportunities to kids, families and communities who otherwise may not have them.